Bricker Family Reunion 2007

This past weekend we made a spur of the moment decision to go to Bobby's family reunion in Luna, NM (located right on the AZ, NM border). We made the decision to leave Fri. morning and headed out around 5:00 that afternoon (yes, we have known about the reunion for 6 months!). As we were walking out the door we realized we had forgot to print directions, just to discover that what we thought was going to be a 9 hour drive is really an 11 1/2 hour drive(one way) and does not go through St. George, UT (where we were going to stay the night with my parents), but instead goes through the 4 corners (UT, CO, AZ, & NM). We decided to make the trek anyway and I LOVE Bobby's family so it was worth the screaming baby for 90% of the roadtrip, the $150 we spent on hotel rooms (when did the price of the Super 8 Motel go up?!), the $200 we spent on gas, the 7 hours we spent every day for 4 days(we drove there on Fri. and Sat. and back on Sun. and Mon.) in the car (with a crying baby-whom by the end of the trip I was willing to sell...don't worry, he would have been expensive :)- ), the bug bites, the sunburn, being dirty (I am NOT an outdoorsy person and the reunion was at a campsite), and being freezing at night (why didn't somebody tell me it's cold at night when you're camping...I'm from TX where it's ALWAYS hot and at girl's camp we slept in cabins with fans!!!). But overall we had an AWESOME time and it really was so good to see all of Bobby's immediate and extended family-except Rebekah whom I REALLY REALLY missed (and Nathan of course :)). On Mon. on the way home we drove through Moab and decided to stop at Arches National Park to give the baby (and us) a break. It was beautiful there and Bobby and I would really like to go back some time to hike to some of the arches that are not so close to the road. (Feel like babysitting anyone?!) Anyway here are some pictures from our little adventure. (I know a lot of you won't care about some of these pics, so they're mainly for Rebekah and Nathan who didn't get to come:( )



A random pic we took while driving


Me and the Bobster


Grandpa and the beanie he won for Tyler at the auction (it's a good thing too b/c it's the only thing that kept him warm that night!)


Tyler and Bobby's brother Mark (Tyler looks even more bald next to Mark!)




It started raining around 6:30 and was sooo cold...poor Tyler




My nephew tied to a tree by his dad (Aaron)


Me, my niece Shanda, and her daughter Tessa




My adorable great niece Tessa (is it "great" if it's my niece's daughter???)


The tent I did most definately NOT stay in


The trailer I most definately DID stay in


Bobby and his brothers; Scott, David, Aaron and Mark, and his dad (would you ever guess they're from Missouri?!:)-)


Aaron and his wife Diane and they're kids (Corey and Cody-14, Jared-6, Anna-4 1/2). The boy on the far left is a friend that came with them.


Aunt Kathy and her daughters


Tyler putting Tessa in her place :)



Now here starts our trip home. First we drove into the city of Luna b/c there is a lot of the Bricker family history in that very, very small town and we wanted to check out some of the places his great grandparents grew up.

The post office in Luna (isn't it cute)


The Pine Cone Cafe, a Cafe that was owned by Bobby's great grandparents


A craft store owned by someone in his family


Tyler driving us home


Pretty picture of the sunset


There was a time where traffic was at a standstill due to road construction and it was brought down to 1 lane that both north and south traffic had to share. While we were waiting for all the traffic going south to come through, I guess this little boy had to go potty and couldn't wait!


Right outside of Moab, UT they have this attraction called "hole n' the rock". It's a place where this guy and his wife took a stick of dynamite and blew a hole in the rock. It started out as a diner, but they later blew out more rock and turned it into their house (5,000 sq. feet), it was so cool! They also had some cool art sculptures and a petting zoo outside.








Can you guess why we took this picture?! Bobby couldn't stop laughing!


Arches National Park
We drove around through most of it, but decided to get out and hike to one that looked pretty close. Little did we know it was a 1/2 hour trip both ways, which wouldn't have been so bad if I wasn't wearing jeans, a black shirt and flip flops!






Balanced Rock



So there's our trip! Thanks for sticking through all the pictures!